Cocoa Firefighters' Pension Fund

Cocoa Firefighters' Pension Fund

The Cocoa Firefighters' Pension Fund operates as a defined-benefit plan for firefighters employed by the City of Cocoa, Florida. Governed by a Board of Trustees that includes Director M. Norris Park, the fund is administered under Chapter 175 of the Florida Statutes, which sets funding standards and benefit structures for municipal firefighter pensions statewide. The plan's administrative management is handled by Pension Resource Centers, LLC. The fund maintains a three-part allocation: an equity portfolio spanning global markets, a fixed-income portfolio domiciled in the United States, and a direct real estate sleeve that includes mixed-use assets managed through Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation. This construction pairs liquid public-market instruments with private, income-generating property to service long-dated liabilities. Florida public records confirm the fund's participation in state-level trustee education through the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association, signaling a board focused on fiduciary governance practices. The plan is sponsored by the City of Cocoa, a municipality in Brevard County on Florida's Space Coast. As a single-employer pension fund, its liabilities are tied exclusively to the city's firefighter workforce rather than pooled across multiple agencies — a structure that leaves it more exposed to the city's specific credit profile than statewide pooled plans. The fund's direct real estate commitments, routed through Intercontinental, distinguish it from many small municipal plans that rely solely on commingled real-asset funds. Structurally, the fund stands apart from larger Florida peers like the State Board of Administration by operating as an independent, locally governed trust. That independence concentrates decision authority in its Board of Trustees, who must balance the city's budget constraints with the constitutional protection Florida courts have repeatedly afforded earned pension benefits.